At Ipswich, some years before printing was introduced there, we find a book issued by a publisher. This was an edition of the Historia Evangelica of Juvencus, and its imprint stated that it was to be sold at Ipswich in 1534 by Reginald Oliver. A copy occurred in the first part of Heber’s sale and was bought by Thorpe, the bookseller, but since then all trace of it has disappeared. The edition was probably that printed by Joannes Graphaeus at Antwerp with Oliver’s imprint added to a certain number of copies, and this is rendered more likely by the fact that the same printer issued in the same year an edition of the Rudimenta-Grammatices, a school-book which had been prescribed in 1528 by Cardinal Wolsey for use in the school which he had just founded at Ipswich. Wolsey prescribed the use of this book and others, not only for the use of his special school at Ipswich, but throughout England, and we find a number of editions printed at Antwerp to be sent over to England for sale. Juvencus was one of the authors whose book was recommended for use.
Of Reginald Oliver we hear nothing more. He took out letters of denization in 1535 in which he is described as “of Phrisia,” and is perhaps the Reynold Oliver who translated a tract about an earthquake in Mechlin in 1546 printed by Richard Lant.
As a stationer Oliver would be also a bookbinder, and perhaps the panel stamp may be assigned to him signed with the initials R. O. and a trade-mark. The panel is divided by a vertical line into two halves each filled by a large medallion. That on the right contains the Tudor rose, the left the Royal arms. In the left-hand upper corner is a shield with the cross of St George, in the right the binder’s mark. If he had been a London binder, this would have contained the city arms. There is nothing to connect this binding with Oliver except the initials, but these are uncommon, and no other stationer with them is known.
The first person to begin printing at Ipswich was a certain Anthony Scoloker, whom most writers have considered to be a foreigner, but who is definitely spoken of in the Subsidy Rolls as an Englishman. He was an educated man, printing translations of his own from French and German, and it is not improbable that he had left England on account of religious persecutions, and had returned under the milder rule of Edward. His settlement in Ipswich for a few months may perhaps be traced to the influence of Richard Argentine, a schoolmaster and physician of that town, who was a vigorous reformer in the reign of Edward, a violent Catholic in the time of Mary, and a penitent Protestant again under Elizabeth, dying in 1568 as rector of St Helen’s in Ipswich.
Of the seven books printed by Scoloker at Ipswich, three were translations by himself, three by Argentine, while the seventh was translated by Richard Rice, Abbot of Conway. The first book issued was The just reckoning of the whole number of years to 1547 translated by Scoloker from the German; of this an imperfect copy is in the University Library. His two other translations were A Godly disputation between a shoemaker and a parson, of which there is a copy in a private library, and The Ordinary for all faithful Christians. Of this there is a copy in the Rylands Library. Argentine’s three translations are Luther’s Sermon upon John xx. and the true use of the keys, Ochino’s Sermons, and Ulrich Zwingli’s Certain precepts. Copies of these three books are not uncommon. The book translated by Rice was Hermann’s Right Institution of Baptism.
The Just Reckoning was translated by July 6, 1547, and, we may presume, printed shortly afterwards, but the remaining six books were all printed in the first five months of 1548. The dates of the translations of the three books by Argentine are January 28, January 30, and February 13. At the end of Zwingli’s Certain precepts, the earliest of Argentine’s translations, occurs Scoloker’s device, a hand reaching from the clouds and holding a coin to a touchstone inscribed “Verbum Dei.” From the clouds in the left-hand corner a face, representing the Holy Spirit, blows upon the stone. Below is printed the text, “Prove the spirits whether they be of God.”
Scoloker’s residence in Ipswich was a short one, probably because he did not meet with sufficient encouragement, and by June 1548 he was settled in London, for a book by John Frith, dated June 30, was issued by Anthony Scoloker and William Seres, dwelling without Aldersgate. This was printed by Scoloker and has his device on the last leaf. At London he continued in business until at least 1550.
The next printer to be noticed is John Overton, if indeed he ever existed, for it may be stated at once that nothing is known of him but his name. This is found in the colophon of Bale’s Catalogue of British Writers from the time of Japhet, son of the most holy Noah, up to the year 1548, which states explicitly that the book was printed at Ipswich in England by John Overton on July 31, 1548. On the other hand we find on the title-page of a number of copies a no less definite statement that the book was printed at Wesel by Theodoricus Plateanus on July 31, 1548. One thing is clear from an examination of the book itself, and that is that it was certainly printed abroad, and Bale himself, in the introduction which he wrote to John Leland’s little book, entitled The laborious journey and search of John Leland, writes, “Since I returned home again from Germany where as I both collected and emprinted my simple work De Scriptoribus Britannicis.” Most writers have tried to make the two statements agree by suggesting that the main body of the book was printed abroad and brought over in sheets, and that it was completed after its arrival with two sheets printed by Overton at Ipswich. But these sheets unfortunately are in exactly the same type as the rest of the book. The Ipswich colophon occurs in all copies of the book, but the Wesel imprint only in some. A possible explanation may be found in the legal restrictions regarding the importation of foreign books. As regards copies sold abroad it would not matter where they were printed, but imported copies might meet with difficulties. Hence perhaps the Ipswich colophon and the suppression of the Wesel imprint.
The suspicion which gathered round the book and its imprints naturally spread to the printer himself, Theodoricus Plateanus. Was he a real person or not? Like John Overton, his name was only known from its occurrence in this book, and it was often assumed to be fictitious. A recent fortunate discovery made by Mr Murray of Trinity has proved that he was a genuine printer. Fragments of several books in Latin and German were found used in the binding of an English law-book, and on one of these was a colophon, dated 1548, the same date as Bale’s De Scriptoribus, “Drück tho Wesel by Dirick van der straten,” and leaves of Bale’s book were among the fragments. The discovery is particularly fortunate, not only as supplying the printer’s real name, which may enable us to trace him further, but also as showing us new founts of type undoubtedly used by him, and which were used also in several foreign printed English books which up to now could only be conjecturally assigned to certain towns or presses. Besides the De Scriptoribus Britannicis several other of Bale’s works can now be definitely assigned to him.
The last of the three Ipswich printers and the most important was John Oswen, perhaps from his name and later connexion with Wales, a Welshman. He printed in the town apparently only during the latter half of 1548, but in that period issued ten if not more books. These are all without exception works of the reformers, Calvin, Oecolampadius, Melanchthon, and others. Calvin is represented by two books, A brief declaration of the feigned sacrament, and A treatise on what a faithful man ought to do dwelling among the papists. Of the latter book there is a copy in the University Library, of the former no copy is at present known.